Snakehead Chen Wenshu, Wang Chen, Bai Yuquan and Jin Jiming were each sentenced to life imprisonment and deprived of their political rights for life, by the Intermediate People's Court of Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province Tuesday.

The court also ordered that all their personal property be confiscated. The four were responsible for organizing the smuggling of more than 700 illegal immigrants into Japan between June 1998 and November 2000.

Their 38 co-defendants, also convicted of involvement in trafficking in illegal immigrants were variously jailed for periods ranging from two to 15 years and fined.

Some of the co-accused was also found guilty of possessing of ammunition.

The smashing of the human smuggling ring was a major victory for law-enforcement officers.

About 200 people attended the trial, including the 42 defendants, their legal representatives and relatives.

Chen, the boss of the Snakehead triads, launched the smuggling racket in 1998, with several consignments of illegal immigrants into Japan.

In the two years that the smuggling operation was active, Chen colluded with a number of shipping company heads and employees who were seduced by the lucrative rewards offered by the criminal trade.

His co-conspirators included Wang Chen, the former director of the Shipping Department of Anhui Shipping Corporation Limited in East China's Anhui Province, Xu Fei, former employee of Meilinghua Corporation in Hefei, the capital city of Anhui Province, Wang Jiaqiang, former head of Wufeng Corporation in Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, Bai Yuquan, former manager of the Overseas Department of Anhui Shipping Corporation Limited, Jin Jiming, former captain of the same company and Lin Hailong, former manager of Zhonghai Corporation in Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang Province.

Their vital role was to provide the triad gangsters behind the racket with ships, under the guise they were legitimate leasing and business partners.

(China Daily January 8, 2002)